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Stitches in a sweet cotton mattress, layers of batting and fabric for the coming baby to lay his or her head. And thoughts as I sit and sew and stitch, small and precious body parts wiggling just inside my belly.

We are so thankful for God's blessing of this child.

It is true that His plans are higher than ours and while in the many folk's thinking we might seem foolish, even heartless, for welcoming a sixth child - a child that had a chance of inward deformity, imperfection - we know that God is sovereign and every life He creates has a purpose under heaven, whether they are born in a hovel in another nation, born to an addict only soon to end up in the nightmare of foster care, or born into a loving family.

Chase quickly tried out the new mattress with one of the baby dolls. He is delightfully fascinated with all things related to the coming baby and I know he is going to be such a sweet big brother.

As he plays, I begin to think what our lives would be like if we had followed the wisdom of the world and the statistics given to us by modern medicine - we would have stopped having children after our third child. There would have been no hilarious Ella warming our home with her unique humor and snail pets or the cuddles of Chase with his blue eyes and grins who echoes his Papa's laughs.

Because a life without the guarantee of perfection in body and perfection in environment is sound reason to terminate life...or prevent it altogether - this is the sad logic of man.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future." Jer.29:11

Perhaps not so ironically, is the fact that God sent this message not to His people in a time of blessing or rosy happiness but when they were in the midst of seventy years of trial and pain. Those children, small babies born to parents in captivity, born in some of the worst enviroments, surrounded by hopelessness - this was the message God gave them - that they weren't born without purpose.

I have thought about what would happen to our children should the worst ever happen to them. Should they lose both of their parents in death, should they be abused, split up, neglected, suffer... Not pleasantness to dwell on but still, I think if all that happened - I would not be able to believe that their lives did not carry purpose or worth, that they didn't deserve a chance to glorify God with their lives.

Neither could I hold and cuddle and look into the eyes of the three foster children we've cared for over the past year: one born to an addicted fourteen year old mother, one the thirteenth neglected child of an addict, and one the third generation in social services and think even for a second, with the painful lives ahead of them, that God allowed them to be created without purpose. Instead of shaking a fist at God for their suffering, I found it encouraging and hopeful to pray scripture over them. The living, breathing Word of God does not return void, we are told.

And now I'll set down my heavy thoughts and show you a fun project that Sean quickly helped me put together this morning.

This piece of moulding came with the house. I love the patina, the paint colors, everything about it and when I saw these hooks so cheap at Hobby Lobby (yes! we have a new Hobby Lobby!) I bought three and asked Sean to screw them in for me...

...and hang the new cute rack that looks like it's been there forever and an age on the inside of our kitchen closet door. This closet is loaded with games on shelves and rollerblades and jackets and not so tidy, so you don't get a peek in today.

...for my aprons! And the girl's aprons. And the boys have aprons that will go up there too when they're scrounged up from drawers.

Resources:

For healing after an abortion and one woman's story here.

To give children in hopelessness a chance to fullfill their purpose, to glorify God and know His grace and love...